Angiographic and clinical outcomes of 100 consecutive severe calcified lesions requiring rotational atherectomy prior to sirolimus-eluting stent implantation in hemodialysis and non-hemodialysis patients

Both severe calcified lesions and hemodialysis (HD) are predictors for high rates of restenosis, even in the drug-eluting stent era. We sought to investigate the angiographic and clinical outcome in a population of HD versus non-hemodialysis (non-HD) patients with severe calcified lesions requiring rotational atherectomy. One hundred consecutive lesions (28 lesions in the HD group, 72 in the non-HD group) from 82 patients (19 patients in the HD group, 63 in the non-HD group) requiring rotational atherectomy prior to sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation were analyzed post-procedure and at 8 months. Clinical outcomes were assessed at 12 months. Inclusion criteria were calcified lesions with >270° of superficial calcification on the intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), lesions that the IVUS could not cross, or undilatable lesions. There were no differences in patient characteristics except for age. Although both baseline and post-procedure angiographic findings were similar between the two groups, late loss in stented segment was significantly greater in the HD group than in the non-HD group (HD vs. non-HD: 0.69 ± 0.74 mm vs. 0.34 ± 0.50; P = 0.030). Also, the HD group revealed significantly worse clinical outcomes. In conclusion, mid-term results of highly complex, severely calcified lesions requiring rotational atherectomy in non-HD patients were permissible as compared to on-label lesions. However, in HD patients, both angiographic and clinical outcomes were still suboptimal in this lesion subset, even using SES.